A lot of times bad business can owe to things that are very far out of your control. I did a comic convention in San Francisco that was on the very same weekend as a massive bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park, meaning the entire city’s population was getting high and listening to music instead of coming out to buy comics. Business as a result was awful (for the comic vendors, that is…I imagine the drug dealers did well), but I still had to try.

Stay positive, no matter what! You can always vent when you go home and have stuff of your own to break!

“I don’t have any pockets!” is the number one excuse I get from cosplayers who don’t buy anything, but thankfully not all of them are like that. Some cosplayers have friends who carry their cash for them (just hope that that friend is nearby come sales time).

If you take commissions or do caricatures try offering a drawing of the characters they’re dressed as (unless if you get the “no pockets” excuse again). I sold some prints and on-the-spot drawings of Batman villains to a bunch of Batman villain cosplayers at my last con, so give it a shot!